


Just a Little Bit Longer

by honestgrins



Series: To Rely on the Kindness of Strangers [67]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, I'm Sorry, fair warning, the magic babies exist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-18 02:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11281629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honestgrins/pseuds/honestgrins
Summary: Prompt from Anonymous: klaroline raising teenagers





	Just a Little Bit Longer

They were beautiful - fluffy, pink peonies nestled among white roses and orchids in an intricate crystal vase. The gorgeous arrangement fit perfectly with her office's decor, just like he knew it would.

Creepy, stalker hybrid.

Of course, those observant tendencies of his were probably why he had the flowers delivered to her desk in the ten minutes she had been gone. Wiping a tear from her eye, Caroline shook her head and reached for her desk phone. She pressed a button, the unmarked speed-dial that she liked to pretend didn't exist.

He answered on the first ring. "Before you start, love, it wasn't entirely my idea."

"It's not like you to share credit," she teased, her voice hoarse with the tears she had been holding all morning. "I suppose I have Hope to blame for this lovely gift?"

"She may have intimated that a certain pair of twins had called, needing sartorial advice for their first day of high school," he explained. "I figured you could use something to brighten your morning after dropping them off."

Caroline bit her lip to keep it from wobbling as she remembered Josie and Lizzie waving from the front door of Mystic Falls High. "I don't know how you did this," she admitted quietly. "Sending them to school, even just ten minutes away for a few hours… I miss them."

"It was hardly easy." His voice was quiet, and Caroline knew he was lost in the memories of appearing on her school's doorstep, a young Hope holding his hand and needing a safe place to stay, to grow and learn away from New Orleans. "But it was for the best, and easier to take knowing Hope was in your care."

Toying with the phone cord, Caroline sighed. "She's a good kid, her genetics aside," she said lightly, knowing he likely rolled his eyes at the barb. "Make sure to thank her for me, for both the flowers and helping the girls with their outfits."

"I will," Klaus promised.

She lingered on the line, not wanting to hang up just yet. "How's Hope liking Tulane? Is the university still standing, or has it crumbled under the weight of your spies?"

Klaus laughed softly. "Nonsense, love. The Salvatore Boarding School is still perfectly stable, is it not?" It was her turn to roll her eyes; Hope might have left, but she knew he had kept eyes on Mystic Falls. Added protection for her students was a hard thing to deny, even if it kept an arguably danger-prone source. "Hope has remained infuriatingly independent, choosing to live in the dorms rather than at the compound. She's only seventeen."

"It's a filler year." Caroline's voice was quiet, remembering just how much could happen at seventeen. "You won't miss anything important, I'm sure."

"Just as I'm sure you won't miss Josie and Lizzie's milestones," he added. "Knowing you, you'll have the school wrapped around your finger again in no time."

Shrugging, Caroline glanced to her planner marked with various meetings and notes. "It's not my fault the PTA has become unimaginative over the years, they needed some fresh ideas."

It was Klaus's turn to sigh. "You were always miles ahead of that town. While I'm grateful for the boarding school, I hope you know that my support of it won't waver should you decide to find further use of your talents elsewhere."

Before she could protest indignantly, Klaus turned placating - a common occurrence during their phone calls throughout the decade. "Four years go by in a blink, love, both as a parent and as a vampire. What happens when the girls graduate?"

"They still need a home."

"Which Alaric would be there to provide," Klaus points out. "And they would always have a home with you, wherever that may be."

Tapping her nails on the desktop, Caroline took a fortifying breath. "You stayed in New Orleans."

"It's difficult to leave something you fought so hard to have." There was a distant affection in his voice, reminding Caroline he wasn't speaking of only a city. "And you still have time."

"Just a little bit longer." Squeezing the phone, she pressed her lips together at what that might mean. "Thank you for the flowers, Klaus."

He paused. "I merely hoped to brighten your day, sweetheart." It was a silent apology, a vulnerability she had grown used to during their friendship.

"You did," she admitted. Her pulse racing with indecision, Caroline cleared her throat. "You know, I'm supposed to meet with a potential student in Mississippi next month."

She swore she could hear his eyebrow raise with intrigue. "Oh?"

"Biloxi isn't exactly Rome or Paris," she mulled, "but it's on the Gulf. I could probably use a week by the beach."

"Think carefully, love," he said in a low voice. "Are you telling, or asking?"

Caroline smiled, feeling wicked; she did love when she had his full attention. "I'm sure your spies will keep you informed of my whereabouts, if you can drag yourself away from that city of yours."

"I'd rather you tell me yourself."

Her eyes softened. Klaus had learned her boundaries and tried to move at her pace, knowing this 'friendship' of theirs was anything but normal. As always, there was a game to be played. He was tired of losing, but he never failed to accept the gauntlet she threw.

"Where's the fun in that?"

Hanging up, Caroline already had stirrings of a plan in her mind. Taking a week from the school was managed easily enough with Jeremy constantly asking for more responsibility. It had been slowly sinking in that he would be the next choice to take over when she inevitably needed to leave Mystic Falls altogether.

She was well into her thirties, but looked more like the young teenaged daughters she had just dropped off at high school. Though she hated to admit it, Klaus was right; she needed to be thinking about what came next.

The fact that plan had always included him - on the fringes, at least - didn't scare her as it once did. Maybe Biloxi would be a small glimpse of the future, of what her life could be once the girls were grown.

Thinking of them as growing up made her yearn for the days they wore princess dresses and ate snowcones until their little faces were red and blue. But they had indeed grown into young ladies with their own interests and personalities. They were already calling Hope for fashion advice, and soon they wouldn't need Caroline's credit card to buy their clothes, either.

Her excuses to stay in Mystic Falls were growing slim, Klaus's words about small town life roaring louder in her brain with each passing year. Caroline looked at her flowers again, beautiful and dead in their pretty vase.

She needed to be ready when that vase cracked. Caroline had a feeling where the flowers might thrive again, but she'd make him work for a while yet.


End file.
